Please Note: In order to use the FlatWorld Homework tool, the integration needs to be configured in coordination with your Canvas Admin.
Accessing the FlatWorld Homework Tool
Inside your Canvas...
Click the 'Courses' tab and select the desired course. You can also access the course through the 'Dashboard' option from the menu bar.
Click on 'Assignments'.
Click '+Assignment'.
Once the Canvas assignment has been created, give it a name and switch the Submission Type dropdown to 'External Tool'.
The External Tool Options menu will appear with a blank URL field and a 'Find' button.
Without entering any text in the URL field, click 'Find' to pop up a list of available External Tools, and scroll through that list to find FlatWorld Homework.
Please note:
If your school is using an LTI 1.1 integration, yours will be titled FlatWorld Homework. If your school is using an LTI 1.3 integration, yours will be titled FlatWorld.
Once you've found 'FlatWorld Homework' from the Configure External Tool list, click on it or the blue magnifying glass but do not click the 'Select' button. You'll get another popup from Canvas called 'Link Resource from External Tool' with a welcome message from FlatWorld Homework. You can also click and drag the diagonal lines in the lower right corner of the Homework window to resize the display.
The course name will be taken from Canvas.
Under the 'Book Field', you can search by ISBN or Title. If you need, you can click on 'get more books' and a link to the FlatWorld website will pull up book details in our catalog.
Once you have selected your book, click 'Confirm'. This will link your book to the homework course (this only needs to be done once), and you will be taken to the FlatWorld Homework tool to begin creating your first assignment.
Creating your first assignment
When creating assignments, you will notice that Step 1 - Settings includes a checkbox that is not present on standalone assignments, which reads "Limit Student Access". Checking this box will let you set a start date and due date for the assignment in FlatWorld's Homework tool. We recommend selecting this option and leaving the Canvas settings for due dates blank so that access to the assignment is controlled by the FlatWorld settings. (If you choose to use the Canvas settings instead students may be unable to access the assignment to review their answers later, and granting extensions may be more complicated.)
We've written more detailed guides that walk through creating assignments of different types -
Instructions on creating a new assignment and selecting the questions personally (note: skip to Step 1 - Settings):
Instructions on creating your assignments with randomly selected questions from an individual chapter (note: Quick Create's default setting does NOT limit student access - make sure to return to Step 1 - Settings if you want to add due dates, then SKIP to Create an Assignment through Quick Create (LMS):
Instructions on copying an assignment or exam (note: skip to LMS-Integrated Homework Course):
Please note:
We recommend setting due dates and availability in the FlatWorld settings during Step 1 - Settings, but if you choose not to check the "Limit student access" box, then due dates and availability will be controlled within the Canvas assignment settings:
If you instead use FlatWorld's settings to limit student access, then you should assign the exercise to "Everyone" and leave the availability and due dates blank in Canvas:
Attempts are controlled within FlatWorld homework.
If you would like to control how many times a student can attempt an assignment, please use the (richer) settings inside FlatWorld Homework instead of the (more simplified) control in the Canvas Assignments screen. In particular, keep the “Allowed Attempts” setting as Unlimited in Canvas:
If your assignment is already published, you can update the assignment settings by launching the assignment on Canvas and selecting the Edit Settings button inside the Homework window:
Embedding the Assignment in Canvas
As soon as you have completed your assignment and hit 'Publish' in FlatWorld Homework it's time to complete the final step and embed the details into the assignment in Canvas. Click the 'Embed in LMS' button:
Clicking the 'Embed in LMS' button will display a warning screen, as making edits (in particular to questions) is limited after students start attempting the assignment.
Once you are ready, click 'Embed in LMS'. You will be taken back to the Canvas Assignment page and see the External Tool selection list.
IMPORTANT: CLICK THE SELECT BUTTON. Do not click out of the window (on the "X" or Cancel button, as this will undo all of your work and the assignment will not be available.
Once you click select, you will see a URL entered in the External Tool URL under the Submission type. At this point, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click 'Save' (in Canvas) to ensure the Assignment configuration is not lost during future edits to the Canvas assignment settings.
This completes the assignment creation process and it is now ready for use in your Canvas course. Congratulations!
FAQ
Do I have to enter in FlatWorld assignment grades manually into Canvas?
Student grades are sent to the Canvas grade book as soon as they submit their assignment. When and if the students can see these grades is determined in the Canvas gradebook settings.
How do I change a student grade for a FlatWorld Assignment?
For integrated homework, all grade changes will take place in the Canvas gradebook.
Can I copy a Homework course in Canvas?
Copying the Canvas course will carry over your created Homework assignments to the new Canvas course shell. After copying the assignments using Canvas's copy tools, you will need to launch one assignment in order to complete the copying process within the FlatWorld tool. If you do not launch an assignment before your students start trying to access them they will receive error messages. You will need to check that the assignment dates line up with the new semester, and will likely need to update them.
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